New Member

For days, on various cables and chargers, my kid's iPhone 3G has been stuck on this low-battery indication:

We let the battery sit for days, so as to die, so that we might reboot it; but upon plugging it back in, it still just sits there at this low-battery mark.

Unfortunately, the only working button on the phone is the home button as the top and left buttons fell off long ago.

The reason I post this is to ask if you guys with iPhone experience recognize what kind of state the iPhone 3G is in - and perhaps - you have the experience to suggest ways to get it out of whatever mode it's stuck in?

Moderator

Is that screen glitches at the top? You could try blowing out the dock port with some compressed air and using a different charging cable and outlet/USB port. If that doesn't work it's likely hardware failure.

New Member

One thing I don't know, having had no experience with iPhones, is whether this empty red battery symbol is common.
I was hoping that this "symptom" would be something that at least has been seen before.
Am I the first one with this particular symptom that you know of?

Moderator

No, I've seen it before. Those screen glitches are a bad sign and indicate that there is likely something wrong with the hardware. I imagine you could get a replacement 3G for about $50 on eBay or Craigslist. You can get a 3GS for less than $100 now.